dress-up and carnival rides

DULT!!!!! So I officially love May in Germany. May means Dult. Which means beer, Dirndls/Lederhosen, and carnival rides. I never thought I would drunkenly ride carnival rides in traditional German clothes after having consumed two litres of beer, but that is exactly what I did last weekend! And this weekend, actually, however the two litres has not been repeated. And is not likely to be, seeing as I am uninclined to really truly enjoy beer. It was a cultural experience though, so I felt it had to be done, haha.

Anyway, last weekend was my first Dult experience, and we went all the way to Passau for it. Kathryn and I wore our Dirndls (which Heather still refuses to purchase), and we bought Erwin Lederhosen that morning. My Dirndl is black with blue embroidery and a blue apron, and I am absolutely in love with it. So so much. The little white blouse that goes underneath has cut out shoulders, which I also love, and a heart-shaped neckline. So wonderful! Anyway, the four of us went to Passau early to buy Lederhosen and look at the three rivers, and then everyone else showed up a few hours later and we got to Dult - which I had soley been imagining as a Bierfest, so imagine my surprise when we got there and there were carnival rides!! SO awesome! After a beautiful ferris wheel ride we got beer and settled down to begin our German education. A Maß of beer is a lot, pretzels bigger than your face are most certainly worth two euro, and random slices of cheese and varied seafood are standard fair food. Also of course, so many sweets it's impossible to imagine. I still really want someone to give me one of those gingerbread (I think) hearts that say silly things like "Du bist mein Sommerschein" and "Ich hab dir Lieb." 

This weekend Dult came to Regensburg! And it will be here for two weeks! Friday night was the first night, and we spent it watching fireworks and riding the bumper cars, and watching insane amounts of people crammed into a beer tent. Saturday was spent doing more rides, drinking more beer, eating more pretzels, and just general outdoors enjoyment. That night was Mike's fabulous birthday party, so all in all I had a most enjoyable weekend, however none of my homework got done and all my working out this week has been for naught. Ah well, of course I'm off to eat pancakes tonight and screw it up some more. As Kate, Kathryn, and I keep saying, I love my life!

Another cultural experience, however a not-so-German one, is this new salsa dancing class I'm taking with Heather, Erwin, Oscar, and hopefully Kathryn at the Uni. Well, part of this class is that on Wednesday nights they have salsa night at a club downtown. I went two weeks ago with Heather and Erwin, and while watching them practice and work out their basic moves they had learned, this man came up to me clearly seeing I was sort of the third. He keeps trying to get me to dance and I'm saying no no I can't I don't know how, but he sort of grabs my hand and drags me onto the floor. And at first I'm actually really excited because he shows me the basic steps and tells me what to do more or less, and it means I get to spin around a lot and sort of look like I know what I'm doing, and because he knows what he's doing it's really fun (a good lead is a crucial thing). But then we start sort of moving off into this corner where I can't really see Heather and Erwin anymore, and these songs all run into each other because there's a DJ that makes sure they keep going and they're already long and they all sound somewhat the same. Anyway, as we're over the in the corner it become a little more touchy and like close dancing, with some shaking and grinding type stuff, but I'm like hey, it's salsa! you have to get close to dance it properly. But then the man lifts up my hair and is like, "du bist heiß" in a way that was only sort of a question (because I was sweating a lot) and also sort of really sketch, and then he BLEW ON MY NECK. That's when I got hesitant, but I couldn't escape because he had me very tightly enclose in his arms and I was still trying to be polite. After a little more unfomfortable neck time I found a break in the song that could maybe be the end, and was like I have to get back to my friends. And that's when he grabbed me and tried to kiss me, and I just like turned my head from his tobacco-smelling breath and was just like uh, nein! And I ran back to Heather and Erwin, and we left. It was hysterical in hindsight, and maybe he wasn't trying to be a creep, maybe that's just how the end of a salsa dance works, but it was still sketch to me. In a hilarious way.

Okay, so now I have to go read Goethe. I have a 117 page play due on Tuesday that I haven't started, and reading middle German makes it especially time consuming. Oh but I'm so tired! Maybe I'll take a nap first...

Also, to anyone reading at Wesleyan know that I have had you all in my thoughts for the past week. I am so glad that you're all safe and that things are starting to move forward again. I love you all, and know that I feel the sadness and confusion from here too. Hugs to you all.

finally an update

There is ice on my window. It's almost Mai. WTF.

Also, finally an update!

So this week I finally started classes at the University. I am taking four. The first is a text analysis class that looks like it could be interesting and I can already tell I like the teacher. I think I've also figured out how to access all of my reading, so that makes that class infinitely less stressful (it is impossible to figure out how to do your reading, to know what books to read and what's online/in the library, and often even to know what to read for what days). We do have to do a Referat in that class, which I'm not looking forward to, but Heather and I are doing one together, and we're doing it with this kid who just got back from a semester in New Zealand and is very excited to be able to practice his English. That makes the entire prospect much less daunting.

My second class is a class called (roughly-translated) The Age of Confessionalism, From The Peace of Augsburg to The Thirty Years War. I'm taking that one with Heather too, and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to be taking a history class again. Somehow I'm always missing one, history or literature. Anyway, that class was an experience. First, it's from 6-8 pm which is exactly dinnertime. Fun. Second, the teacher talks a million miles a minute, and even did so when speaking to Heather and me separately to ensure us that he will slow down if we need him to. Third, there is a kid in the class who wants to speak in Bayerisch. No way, so not allowed, but the teacher said that was fine as long as he could understand him. Grr.

My third class is a Deutsch als Fremdsprache course, meaning that it is designed for foreign students and is similar to the intensive language program I just finished. It's a Landeskunde class on Germany post 1945. It should be easy and interesting and I'm in it with a bunch of people I know, including Kathryn, so it will be a grand old time. My fourth class is also on Thursdays, and that's a class on authoritarian and totalitarian dictators. I'm taking it for credit towards my international relations certificate (hopefully), but it's a huge lecture and I just can't write quickly enough in German to manage to keep up. Also, it's from four to six which is my sleepiest time of the day. Oh well, we'll see how it goes...

Today I also went to attempt to figure out the library. I have never been somewhere so complicated. You can't take bags in, so we tried to drop ours off at these lockers, but to do that you have to first activate your ID. So we went to the Ausweis office, only to find out that we had to know some password to activate it FIRST. So we went to ANOTHER office and finally figured it out (with some difficulty), and then went back to the library. That apparently you can't check books out of? And it's only one of like 18 libraries. So so confusing. The bookstore also has like on copy of each book and they're not organized at all besides by subject. Oh goodness this university is a mess.

Other exciting news... Well, Germany is slowly eating my electronics. First my little camera stopped working suddenly while we were in Prague, then my ipod broke last week (making the gym so sad for the past week), and then my computer suddenly refused to turn on beyond the first blue screen. Eeek! After a lot of time with my program director and multiple computer stores, however, we got it fixed within a day and were lucky enough to find out that it didn't cost anything! But talk about a temporary scare. Also, my new ipod should be here by the time I get back from Salzburg tomorrow, so yay!

My last exciting piece of news is that I have a new Mitbewohnerin! Her name is Judith and she is German and wonderful. She is super friendly and has already organized us all to paint the kitchen. I also had champagne with her and her friend and my other roommate Andi and his friends on our balcony, and spoke German and it was wonderful. So yes, I'm slowly having more German options.

home at last

So I'm finally home, and exhausted. Fifteen days of somewhat intense and constant travelling is quite tiring. I will update on here with a post for each place I went (Prague, Vienna, Schaffhausen, Basel, Grenoble, Paris, Cologne) when I get a chance. Be prepared for an influx of insane detail, because I want to try and remember everything myself (and let people like my parents know every single detail).

Anyway, I'm back and alive and contact-able again. I'll be at my computer most of the day tomorrow - uploading photos and writing in my blog etc. Please facebook or skype me! If you read my blog I'm sure I've missed you!

Tonight I am off to relax (meaning reading Die Unendliche Geschichte and watching The Sound of Music). Bis Später (wahrscheinlich Morgen)!

freedom!

So I am officially done with the language program! All that is left is a fun party tonight, and then we are off on spring break for three weeks until the Summer Semester starts. I am so so so excited for break. Heather, Erwin, and I are going to Prague for three days, and then Vienna for one. From there, Heather and I are going to Schaffhausen Switzerland (which looks like the most adorable mountain town), and then Basel, each for a day. After that I am heading to Grenoble to visit Ali and Paris to visit Mary, which is the part of this trip that I am the most excited for, if that's possible. Then I'm meeting up with Heather again in Cologne, and she, her friend, and I are traveling back to Regensburg on Easter Sunday. The plan is to just stop in some random little towns and wander around where all the shops are closed, the streets are empty, and everything's adorable. If this doesn't work out for some reason though, there's always Easter Monday back in Regensburg. And yes, Easter gets two days here, neither one more important than the other. Wonderful!

Also, I am beyond excited, due to my trip to the library today. As my reading level is around that of a ten-year-old, I began in the children's section. I took out Harry Potter and Matilda in German, as well as The Neverending Story, which I hated the movie of as a child but is the only children's book that I know of that was originally written in German. We also may have found the Devil Wears Prada in German, so after I get back I will be taking that one out.

This means that I can bring Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, Die unendliche Geschichte, and Stolz und Vorurteil on my break. Hopefully with the help of these I won't completely forget my German right before I have to take classes again.

And now, I am leaving to go to bed until seven or so, due to this horrible sickness that has consumed me for the last few days. I have to be better by my 6:30 train tomorrow morning, so I am sleeping as much as possible for now. Hopefully my laundry is dry enough that I can move the shirts off my bed. Goodbye for a few weeks!

Is there such a thing as a snow-bow? A Schnee bow?

This country has the most schizophrenic weather. Today it has been both sunny and blizzarding, and it will switch back and forth within minutes. Sometimes it's both at the same time. I was hoping to walk to school this morning, as I do most mornings, but by the time I got from my house to the bus stop (no more than two minutes) it had become far too cold and begun snowing intensely. Having JUST missed my bus (as in watched it drive away as I walked up), I luckily caught a different bus that took me halfway to Uni. The ten minutes outside, however, were absolutely miserable. But now it's gorgeous out! I just don't know what to think.

I just finished my Grammatik Prüfung, and now have the entire afternoon to myself. There's not much I can do to study for my Schreiben and Übersetzung Prüfungen Morgen, so I might have time just to read and relax, which would be WONDERFUL. I am so excited by the fact that even if I go to the gym after the tests instead of before, there is no way I could be home later than two. And then we have three weeks of freedom! I can't wait, it's wonderful.

tiny dancer

So as a side-note, I may or may not have put someone under the impression that American girls like to be danced with like five-year-olds. In my desire Tuesday to ensure that my "determined admirer" from Friday night did not get the wrong impression, we may have resorted to twirling and fun dancing that allowed me to avoid any close contact. And apparently that's how he danced with all of the American girls this Friday. Haha, excellent! I am spreading cultural inaccuracies without even trying!

Hier KANN Mann Nonstop Party Machen

So I am now officially running on over a week of going to bed no earlier than two and getting up no later than seven. And finals are next week, so that was smart. But even though I am absolutely exhausted, I wouldn't trade one minute of it. 

This suddenly exciting life began last Friday, when Heather and I decided that it was time to go out for real. So we had an appropriately German evening, involving a beer stein and some Jäger, and then went out with the Erasmus kids. We started at a party in one of the student dorms, where the Americans contributed with such cultural things as flipcup, which may have turned into flipcup with wine and a hysterical time.  Anyway, we eventually went to a club called Suzie Wongs, which I liked a lot. Heather and I also learned that in Europe we are hot commodities. Apparently, what in America is a problem with my dancing (namely my incredible whiteness (Europeanness) setting me apart as bad and awkward), in europe is completely the opposite. Here, my (extremely limited) American dancing skills make my dancing abilities far superior to any European. As an example, a popular dance move that I saw one night in a bar consisted (as I explained it to Amanda) of this man standing awkwardly, with each fist making a thumbs-down gesture and his arms raised in the air, pumping the fists up and down (alternating arms), still in the thumbs-down position. Try acting it out and you'll see why this is so hilarious.

Anyway, these new-found dancing abilities meant that Heather and I had to run away from quite a few people all night. This one kid actually followed us across the club. I also may have required Heather's assistance multiple times in, as she put it, saving me from a "really determined admirer."  I of course repaid the favour last night, in saving her from a similar "really determined admirer." We have learned that the Brits are no help in this matter at all, as apparently they do not do "direct confrontation." How saving a girl by grabbing her to dance with you is direct confrontation I do not know, but alas.

In the end we may have left the club at three in the morning, and then had to have been back downtown at eight thirty the next morning for a trip to Augsburg with the program. Augsburg was interesting and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately my raging headache and lack of sleep meant that the total of six hours on a train and five hours of walking did not make me feel too great. And yet, I didn't let that stop me from getting up at seven the next morning to go to Münich with a bunch of the Erasmus students. Apparently Münich has the third largest Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the world (after Dublin and new York), and going with a bunch of Irish people was something I just couldn't pass up. The weather was terrible - rainy and cold - but we made fun out of it through Butterbrezeln, gelato, and cafés. Also, the parade itself was just pure ridiculousness - apparently Germans will use any excuse to dress up. Not only were there many Bavarians in their traditional dress, but we also saw neon aztecs, cowboys, and vikings, among others. It was absolutely hysterical. The amount of drunken revelry and beer and traditional German food (at a Saint Patrick's Day Parade?) was insane. It was a fun time, but we eventually had to leave due to pure exhaustion and quite a bit of cold.

The best part of Münich, however, was that Chris came to Germany and I met him there before the parade! It was so nice to see a Wes friend again! He also came back to Regensburg, and on Sunday night we went to Pepper's and got some more gelato (gelato is officially my new addiction - I might eat more of it than chocolate, even!). Monday we had a lovely time wandering around downtown in search of the perfect German things. This included a two-hour period at (yet another) Eis Café, after which we went to the historic Wurst stand (oldest in der Welt - oder Europa? Deutschland?), and then on a quest for apple strudel. Delicious! After a lovely evening at Habibi for Shisha, Erwin and I eventually had to go home (due to class in the morning, homework, etc.),  and Chris took off for Paris the next morning. It was a brief, but wonderful, thing to see him.

Tuesday was also no day for rest, as there was a Hiltnerheim party that night. However no one told us that it wouldn't start until twelve thirty or so, meaning that I was up quite late once again. Wednesday I elected to skip karaoke for a chance to sleep, however class scheduling is so intense and complicated that I was up until one or two dealing with that stuff and trying to figure out how to work it all out.

Thursday Kathryn threw a potluck/surprise birthday part for Matt. After some delicious stir-fry from Erwin and a yummy veggie dish from Heather (not to mention Kathryn's amazing chocolate cake), we ended the night plyaing German Taboo. This is surprisingly fun - and suprisingly do-able! I was proud to be able to describe some of these words, not only by stammering along but even with some correct grammatical structures, haha.

And then to round out the week, we had a lovely Friday as well. The afternoon was spent dress-shopping and gelato eating (the sheer amount of times I have mentioned this in this blog is starting to alert me to how large of problem this might be). I bought a dress at H&M that I proceeded to wear out that night, and it was wonderful. Heather, Melissa, Kathryn, Erwin, and I somehow all ended up matching, leading to some amusing photos and a lot of laughter. This was after Kathryn letting me borrow her boots and doing my hair - it was absolutely wonderful, I felt just like I was playing dress-up!

That night we went to Lukas's for a pre-party, that ended up lasting an excessively long time. It was fun, if a little bro-y, but by the end we were so ready to go dancing. This time we went to a club called Karma Lounge, which was fun but a little strangely set up and definitely too loud. We had fun, and as I mentioned I had to rescue Heather a few times, but by two-thirty we were exhausted and just had to leave. Erwin and I briefly contemplated a taxi, but then decided that sleeping on Kathryn's floor would be just as good (and a cheaper) option. Although we had a cold and somewhat uncomfortable night, it was definitely a good idea. We got up that morning and met Heather and Melissa for breakfast, before walking around and getting, surprise surprise, more gelato. It was so sunny out and the streets were just gorgeous. I can't wait for Spring!!

So now I'm lying here in my bed, exhausted, with a sore throat and neck, listening to music and just wanting to go to bed. My productivity today was sorely lacking, but hopefully tomorrow I can wake up not too late and have a small breakfast, do some weights, and then buckle down all day. That's my plan, we'll see how well it actually goes. Now I have to go to bed - and disconnect my iTunes (sorry Erwin!)